Case Study: Chris Poulos
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Project Name | Museo del Barrio | Ventures into Abstract Art en Espanol Teacher | Chris Poulos, Redding , CT - Joel Barlow High School Connecticut Teacher of Year 2007 Total Time | 3-4 weeks
Grade Level | High School Spanish Number of Participants | 14 students in 4 teams Keywords & Content Areas
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Project Overview
How might learning Spanish be made more immersive, real-world and relevant? Utilizing local museum resources through El Museo del Barrio, High School teacher Chris Poulos challenged his students to develop a Spanish language interpretive tour which would allow museum visitors to experience both onsite and online. Importantly, the museum was involved in every step of the process and the students were expected to treat El Museo del Barrio as their “client.”
Chris explains the project from El Museo del Barrio in New York City) |
This project challenged students to apply their Spanish language abilities to a real challenge: creating an interpretive tour that museum visitors could experience both in-person and online. El Museo del Barrio staff worked with the students through all project phases, communicating with students prior to their museum visit, working with the students on site, and providing feedback for the students’ final work.
The project launched with an exploration of the museum’s collection online. Chris consulted with Museo del Barrio education staff, blending educational resources and the museum’s online collections. Students explored various artworks, then identified an artwork of personal interest. Notably, this teacher started with a specific museum and allowed students to explore before identifying an interest. In general, museum education departments are usually open to new approaches in leveraging their collections, especially if projects are student-directed and relevant to other educators. This illustrates the flexibility of museums based learning as well as the variety of ways to launch a museum project.
Small teams of students conducted research on their chosen artwork and began developing a plan for interpreting their selected piece. On a larger scale, the class as a whole discussed and planned how they would deliver their full tour to visitors both in-person and online. Throughout this early project phase, a social network space provided students a platform to collaborate, share their work, and get feedback from outside experts- including the museum staff.
Midway through the project the students visited El Museo del Barrio to see their selected artwork in-person and consult with museum staff. Throughout the day, the students worked to produce short videos about their selected work. Following the museum visit, the class developed a plan for sharing their tour both virtually and in person. They decided to produce a website which would share their work online. In addition, they decided to create a printable visitor guide which included a museum map and QR codes for individuals with smartphones to view their final piece while visiting the museum. The student website includes four interpretive videos, all in Spanish, of a select group of abstract artworks from the Museo del Barrio's collection. To conclude the project, a celebration was held where the students presented their work to the Assistant Principal, school curriculum developers, education technology staff, school administrators and educators.
Common Core Connection
The Common Core Standards will hold teachers of every discipline responsible for teaching English Language Arts standards. This project is an excellent example of a high school special subject teacher (AP Spanish) implementing an interdisciplinary project integrating a wide range of ELA standards, digital media tools, and art history while still effectively addressing the primary subject area standards.
In addition, this project is exemplary in addressing 21st century skills and the expectation that digital media tools are well-integrated in learning environments. Throughout this project students used a range of collaborative tools for sharing ideas, initial drafts, images, and research topics; they developed & implemented production plans for interpretive videos; and created a website incorporating videos and QR codes for their final product. While the selection of tools is impressive, what is most remarkable is that the students problem-solved how to best use these tools at each phase of the project. In other words, the use of social media and digital media was directly related to a specific purpose-- not simply a project requirement or add-on.
English Language Arts
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
Handout Materials: Four handout materials
- Aligning CCSS Language Standards
- PreVisitMuseoRubric
- PreVisitMuseoSheet
- VideoRubric.
Process
Week 1: Identify & Explore
Goal: Establish project plan, and explore possible themes or topics for an interpretive tour.
After a short introduction to the challenge of developing a Spanish language interpretive tour for visitors, the students had to determine what tools and resources would enable them to complete this challenge. Students identified collaborative platforms such as Facebook, texting, and Twitter, then worked together to establish a set of protocols for using these tools.
Once the students established a system for how they would collaborate, they began to explore El Museo del Bario online, making note of key themes and areas of interest. They also utilized materials obtained from teacher consults with the museum education staff prior to kicking off the project.
Week 2: Explore & Connect
Goal: Develop & create an interpretive piece for El Museo del Barrio.
Student teams explored the museum’s online collections in order to identify an artwork of interest. As they identified artworks, they shared them via the established social network for feedback from their peers and teacher. The museum provided assistance by pointing students to resources such as articles and lesson plans related to their selected works. Once each small team selected an artwork, they used the resources provided by the museum to develop a draft script and video plan in preparation for their museum field trip.
Week 3: Design & Produce
Goal: Develop & create an interpretive piece for El Museo del Barrio.
This week began with a visit to El Museo del Barrio. The museum visit was carefully planned to begin with time for the students to develop a plan for their activities during the visit. Following this planning period, students had a formal guided tour of the exhibition. This helped the students analyze, deepening their understanding and make more meaningful connections with their selected artworks. This time at the museum gave them the tools and additional details necessary to edit and revise their draft scripts. Leading into the afternoon, students shared and gave each other final constructive feedback before producing their videos and gathering needed footage in the museum space.
After the museum visit, students spent the week editing and producing their video cuts, utilizing the social network to give each other feedback throughout the process.
Week 4: Design & Produce
Goal: Revisit, review, and design prototype solution addressing their real-world challenge.
At this phase, the students had each addressed the challenge through their small group work by producing an interpretive video of one artwork. The process became more collaborative here as students had to determine how this work would be packaged together for sharing with a wider audience of visitors. Students decided to build a website to host their video-based tour. In addition, they created a printable guide for museum visitors which incorporated QR codes- allowing visitors to scan and take the tour in-person by simply using their Smart phones. Students spent this week finalizing their videos and working together to build the various webpage content pieces to support their tour.
Student produced videos interpreting one artwork. |
Week 5 (1 day): Share
Goal: Present and defend their prototype solution proposal
As part of a culminating school-wide event, students presented their final website and interpretive videos to an audience of key stakeholders from the school community, including the school principal and parents. Unfortunately the museum staff were unable to attend due to the 3 hour distance between Chris’ school and the museum. The session was videotaped and share with the museum. And today, tools are available to live stream events to those unable to attend and participate. Although the culminating event lasted one day, the students’ work has lasting and real permanence. It continues to be publicly available and accessible to visitors to El Museo del Bario.
Outcomes
As a result of this project, students produced a website and a QR Coded Visitor Experience Guide.
Teacher Chris Poulos reflected: “Levels of engagement, interest, and student performance have never been higher. Teachers and administrators are rethinking teaching methodologies and classroom practice. This [project] is the type of paradigm shift in teaching and learning that needs to happen in America's classrooms. My students and school owe this realization to what I learned at the Pearson NLI conference in July 2010 and the follow up work that we did during [our work with El Museo del Barrio].”
Conclusions
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What worked well
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Authentic Audience: Participating students felt more motivated by this project because the work was being completed for the museum, and not just for their classmates.
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Interdisciplinary approach: One student reflected that “It’s not typical for a Spanish class to have an art-history component that takes you outside the classroom environment. It certainly took us to a new intellectual level.”
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Portfolio-quality End Product: The High School students who participated in this project felt that the final website provided an impressive and concrete portfolio item to include on their college application.
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Technology Integration: Participating students felt that the project’s integration of a social network, mobile devices, and digital media was refreshing from their typical school experience. Students shared that this project gave them hope the school was catching up with the types of tools used by teens outside the school environment.
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You can hear everything that students had to say by watching this video: Student Reflection. Also included in this YouTube video playlist is Chris Poulos’ introduction to the project and feedback from key stakeholders following the student presentations.
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What we would do the next time around
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Allow more time for the Explore phase: Chris found that the students needed more time to explore the museum content, identify what they were interested in, then deeply research their selected artwork.
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Early & Frequent Interaction with museum experts: While the museum was involved at each project phase, the students would have benefitted from more interaction with experts in the early phases. This would have helped them ask better questions about the artwork, form a stronger content foundation, and ultimately build a better end product. This could be done via online video chats (Skype or Google), email, facebook group, and/or SMS.
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Establish classroom culture that supports reflective process prior to implementing a project: Teacher Chris Poulos felt that introducing a Social Network late in the school-year was distracting. While he saw the value of using social tools for sharing and feedback, he felt it would have been more effective if part of a regular and ongoing classroom practice. The social network used was a proprietary network that is no longer live, but Chris reinforced how helpful it would be to meet his students where they are at, Facebook. Granted, Facebook is still being hotly debated, but some schools are allowing private Facebook groups or Google+ to be used for educational purposes with parental consent.
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Tips for getting started with this project
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Dedicate several days to establishing a project workspace: Chris recommends including the students in a conversation about which social & collaboration tools (i.e. Facebook, Google+, text messaging, Google Docs) will work best for this project. Once students determine this workspace foundation, ensure that protocols are in place for how to post a variety of content (textual, document sharing, and media files) as well as how to effectively & thoughtfully respond to other students’ posts.
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Spend time getting to know the museum before you visit: Spend time exploring their website, getting to know their mission and major content themes, and make an effort to connect with a variety of experts. This pre-work makes for a much more valuable on-site experience and allows students to become actively engaged rather than passive consumers of exhibits and information.
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Build in time for reflection & revision: Throughout this project students had multiple opportunities to share their ideas, initial drafts, and rough video edits. Feedback from their peers, teacher and the museum staff was instrumental in making their final videos, website and tour a success.
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Tools used for this project (2010-2011 school year)
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Bring your own technology policy was employed (BYOT). Students used their own flip cameras, smart phones, laptops and applications. Macs and iMovie were popular along with YouTube and the YouTube video Editor.
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Delivr.com was used to generate, manage and monitor QR Codes. QR codes linked to student videos.
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Weebly.com was used for their website. Weebly was selected by the students and the platform they would use for their public website.
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Google Docs was used for multiple purposes. Google Docs allowed students, teachers and other collaborators across the entire process. Docs, forms and spreadsheets as feedback tools.
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Polleverywhere.com was used live polling. A "Barrio Video Opinion Poll" of the 4 interpretive videos was provided during the celebration.
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New Learning Institute Social Network platform. The NLI proprietary social network was used throughout the process as a platform for collaboration.
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Other collaborative tools ( Facebook and Texting ): Student teams also used their personal Facebook accounts and SMS via their cellphones to communicate and collaborate with each other.
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